UTEP Basketball Teams Host Exhibition Games This Weekend

UTEP hoops fans will have an opportunity to watch both the men's team and women's team in action this weekend. Keitha Adams will take the Don Haskins Center floor for the first time since March when the Miners host St. Mary's at 7:05pm. The game is free for everyone to attend. UTEP returns only one starter, Jenzel Nash, from last year's team. However, Lulu McKinney and Sparkly Taylor both played substantial minutes last season and are expected to join Nash in the starting lineup. Najala Howell and Tamara Seda also return for the Miners. Coach Adams will have redshirt-freshman Jessica Barbosa on the floor for the first time as a Miner, while eight newcomers (Axelle Bernard, Faith Cook, Jakeira Ford, Chanel Khammarath, Roeshonda Patterson, Zuzanna Puc, Rachel Tapps and Katarina Zec) round out the 2016-17 UTEP roster.

Tomorrow afternoon, Coach Tim Floyd will play his final exhibition game of the young season when the Miners host Alaska Fairbanks. UTEP won their first exhibition game last Sunday, 80-73 against Southeastern Oklahoma State. "We’d like to get better in terms of taking care of the ball," Coach Floyd told the media yesterday prior to practice. "We had too many turnovers [20 in the first game]. We’d like to get some guys some more minutes that didn’t play much in the first ballgame, and look at our bench a little bit. We’d like to try to figure out a way to win since we’re really counting on a lot of new guys. And we’d like to see some of our new guys play better than we think they played in the last ballgame."

UTEP is offering a special 2 for 1 promotion for Saturday. If fans purchase a ticket to the men's basketball game, they will receive a free general admission ticket to the Miners football game tomorrow night against Houston Baptist. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for kids.